Baby Bella

Vertical Garden

I am toying with the idea of a vertical garden in our patio. I found this website, for the Window Farm Project, which is pretty cool: http://www.windowfarms.org. But I don't know if this will work for us. I wonder if there are kits I can buy to install a vertical garden outdoors.

The Red Dress

Photo Shoot in Elizabeth Gamble Park, Palo Alto, Ca.

Unexpected Joy

While at work today, minding my own business, I came across this zucchini:

It is, quite possibly, the biggest zucchini I have ever seen in my life.

Such a large vegetable deserved to be named. Accordingly, I named it Pat.  

Pat originally came from the garden of a coworker's mother.

As soon as I got home I started cooking. I made zucchini muffins, zucchini bread and I am currently roasting some zucchini in the oven for dinner. I still have a quarter of Pat left:

Monster is guarding Pat until I decide what to do with the rest of it.

Maybe fried zucchini chips?

Do You Want a Tiny House?

I found a blog that is addicting. In this blog you will find the cutest pictures of the tiniest homes in America. Link HERE.

Relay for Life

Gilroy, CA, 2010

Amazing fun. I sold brownies and I walked. 

THANK YOU to all of those who donated!

My Imagination? I Think Not!

Yesterday I went to a birthday party for an old friend.  Despite burning my eyelashes trying to light a cigar (WTF is up with those crazy super-lighters? You can't see the flames on those things!) and loosing at poker, I managed to have a lot of fun. The party highlighted something that until yesterday I thought was only a figment of my imagination: Almost every single person who knows Alan and me wants us to have a baby. Everywhere we go, the people who know us ask us a variation of the same question: "When are you having babies?".  I find this question both annoying and distasteful. Why, WHY is everybody against the integrity of my cervix?

I have bought a purse-sized pie that I shall henceforth carry in my purse. It will be hurled at the next person who asks me about babies. Seriously. I will throw it at your face, and you will be covered in cherry-goo. It is the only appropriate response I can think of for questions regarding the subject.

Question of the Day

Is it ironic to have an infinite lack of patience?

Blah

Blah blah blah, blah BLAH. Blah-blah-blah-blah. Sasquatch.

BABIES!

My friend Flor is having a baby girl. 

I am very happy for her.

These days it seems like everywhere I look there is a baby inside a protruding belly, waiting to come out. At work, at parties, at the grocery store; it is inescapable. Am I the only one who is terrified by the thought of children?

Hot Air Balloon Ride Over Napa Valley

What a wonderful adventure!

Ginger: The Miracle Root

Today I had a horrible migraine. It was so horrible I could barely keep my eyes open from the pain. I tried pain killers, rest, tea... you name it, to get the migraine to go away. Ginger was the only thing that worked. That right, Ginger is the cure for migraines. Just slice some fresh ginger root and place it on your forehead/around where it hurts, and after a while the pain will subside... and with the left over ginger you can make yourself a nice cup of tea.

23 and Me

This afternoon, after coming home from work, I spat into a test tube. I spat in the name of science. I spat because I want to know about my ancestry, and if I have genes that might be prone the development of cancer. I spat for at least two full minutes to fill that test tube with my lovely and mysterious DNA.

23 and Me is a company that will take your saliva and map your DNA to the best of current scientific abilities. Then, they will give you a full report. (Here is their website: 23 AND ME.) You can find long lost cousins though their website, discover your genetic heritage, and also do a couple of silly things like confirm what kind of ear wax you are pre-disposed to generate. There was a discount on "DNA DAY", which is why Alan and I could afford to try it. I can't wait to see the results!

What I find truly amazing is that 23 and Me might even be able to tell me, if my husband and I were to have babies, what kind of genetic predispositions our children might have. Isn't that cool?

I am really eager to see the results of my genetic mappings, but I am also kind of wary. What would happen if my genetic information were to leak to unscrupulous sources? Can I really trust 23 and Me to keep my DNA anonymous and safe? What if they were hacked? I can't even begin to fathom the consequences. On the other hand, I don't think that my genes hold the power of ever-lasting-youth, or the cure for AIDS, so probably nobody will care about what my DNA has to say except for me.

But you never know....